Microsoft has had very limited success with mobile, struggling to acquire any meaningful amount of market share. With titans like Apple and Google currently dominating the industry, Microsoft is under immense pressure to crack mobile successfully.
Unfortunately, the Surface Phone will probably be the last roll of the dice for Microsoft. Despite the company making much of Windows 10 Mobile, the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL weren’t able to carry Microsoft to mobile glory. Now, Microsoft needs to launch a perfect phone that can convert already invested iOS and Android users to Windows.
The Surface team has done a great job of disrupting the computing industry in recent years, with the Surface Pro, Surface Book and Surface Studio devices all proving to be a thorn in the backside of Apple. Can the Surface Phone do the same for mobile? Read on to find out what we know so far.
No one can say for sure when the Surface Phone is going to come out, but its known that it’s on the way. In November, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told the Australia Financial Review that Microsoft is working on the “ultimate mobile device”, admitting that the company “missed the mobile boom”. That’s not confirmation of the "Surface Phone" name, but it’s clear-cut proof that a new mobile device is on the way.
During the interview, Nadella explained: “We will continue to be in the phone market, not as defined by today’s market leaders, but by what it is that we can uniquely do in what is the most ultimate mobile device.”
But that’s not the only evidence available. Back in January, it emerged that Microsoft had obtained the following domain name: surfacephone.com. The domain currently redirects to Microsoft’s homepage, but given Microsoft’s existing naming conventions for devices (Surface Book, Surface Pro, etc), it seems obvious what the intentions may be. That said, companies often buy up relevant domain names just to stop competitors bagging them, so the name "Surface Phone" may never actually be used.
According to Winbeta, Microsoft plans to finally kill off the Lumia brand – the current Microsoft phone line, formerly of Nokia – in December 2016. That means we’d likely see a Surface Phone that same month, or very shortly afterwards.
Microsoft hasn’t announced any press events for such a device, but it’s likely that the company will be attending the CES 2017 tradeshow in Las Vegas in early January next year. That would be a perfect opportunity to launch a new device, although it would mean missing the Christmas spending season.
In any case, we’re in agreement with the lion’s share of rumours that suggest we’ll see a Q1/Q2 release in 2017.
